Ambassador Enrico Calamai was sent to Buenos Aires in 1972 on his first mission in his capacity as vice consul where he witnessed the coup d’état and the civil war in Argentina. Although Mr. Calamai could count on the help of just a handful of people, he committed himself to the cause of Argentine people of Italian descent and he managed to rescue hundreds of political opponents of the regime by taking them into both the consulate and his own home.